Many refineries include thermal cracking processes as part of an overall process flow for handling challenged feeds. Thermal cracking processes have traditionally been effective for producing naphtha fractions suitable for use in motor gasoline products, but effective production of high quality distillate fuel products has remained a challenge.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2011/0315596 describes an integrated process for hydrocracking and dewaxing of hydrocarbons to form naphtha, diesel, and/or lubricant base stock boiling range products. The integrated process includes dewaxing and optionally hydrocracking under sour conditions, a separation to form a first diesel product and a bottoms product, and additional hydrocracking and dewaxing to form a second diesel product and optionally a lubricant base oil product. The hydrocracking and dewaxing catalysts can include base metals or can include Pd and/or Pt. An example of a hydrocracking catalyst is USY and an example of a dewaxing catalyst is ZSM-48.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,932,454 describes a method of making and using a Y zeolite hydrocracking catalyst. The Y zeolite catalyst has a small mesoporous peak in the pore size distribution of around 40 Å as measured by nitrogen desorption.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,778,171 describes a method of making and using a Y zeolite hydrocracking catalyst. The Y zeolite catalyst contains stabilized aggregates of Y zeolite primary crystallites having a size of 0.5 microns or less.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0341243 describes a hydrocracking process selective for improved distillate and improved lube yield and properties. A two-stage hydrocracking catalyst can be used for hydrocracking of a feed to form a converted portion suitable for diesel fuel production and an unconverted portion suitable for production of lubricant base stocks. The two-stage hydrocracking catalyst can correspond to a first stage catalyst including Pd and/or Pt supported on USY and a second stage catalyst including Pd and/or Pt supported on ZSM-48.